With the news that Robert De Niro, 68, and his 56-year-old wife have just had a baby via a surrogate, we look at the continuing trend to have babies later in life and the effects this can have on the children and parents

There comes a time in every actor's life when he moves from playing the hero to playing the grandfather. For Robert De Niro it came in 2000, when he played the crazy, flashcard-wielding grandpa in Meet the Parents. Yet just last month, De Niro, now 68, and his 56-year-old wife, Grace Hightower, became not grandparents, but parents, with the help of a surrogate mother.